While you’d expect Utah, a state largely populated by teetotaling, law-abiding members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, to be among the safest states, the Beehive State doesn’t quite meet expectations. That’s not to say Utah is dangerous: it’s violent crime rate of 2.33 per 1,000 is well below national levels, however, its rate of property crime is about average compared to the rest of the country.
Nevertheless, Utah’s safest cities boast stunningly low crime rates, on par with the safest municipalities in the United States, validating the preconceived notions many have about the state. Unlike many states, police departments in Utah often serve two or more cities, resulting in a merging of statistical data for two cities. Let’s take a closer look at Utah’s safest communities.
Utah’s safest statistical area is the merged communities of Highland and Alpine, which are serviced by the Lone Peak Police Department. The statistical area has a combined population of nearly 30,000, yet recorded a mere 7 violent crimes in 2018, resulting in a violent crime rate of 0.23 per 1,000.
The 2nd safest city in Utah is Mapleton, a modestly sized community of just over 10K in the Provo-Orem Metropolitan Statistical Area. Mapleton logged exactly 1 violent crime in 2018, amounting to a near nonexistent violent crime rate of 0.1 per 1,000K.
The combined statistical area of Santa Clara and Ivins, located in Washington county, is Utah’s #3 safest police jurisdiction. Together, the cities have a violent crime rate around 7 times lower than nationwide levels.
#4 Santaquin/Genola are two peaceful and picturesque cities in the Provo-Orem metropolitan area. Added up, they have a population of about 13.5K and recorded just 4 violent crimes between them in 2018.
#5 Saratoga Springs is one of the fastest growing cities in the state, with families drawn to its pristine location at the foothills of the Lake Mountains, and the city’s low crime rates.
Utah’s Safest Cities
UT City Population Violent
crimeProperty
crimeLaw enforcement
employeesTotal crimes Crime rate per 1,000 Violent crimes per 1,000 Property crimes per 1,000 Law enforcement per 1,000
1 Lone Peak 29969 7 151 27 158 5.27 0.23 5.04 0.90
2 Mapleton 10041 1 56 10 57 5.68 0.10 5.58 1.00
3 Santa Clara/Ivins 16671 9 126 15 135 8.10 0.54 7.56 0.90
4 Santaquin/Genola 13584 4 114 14 118 8.69 0.29 8.39 1.03
5 Saratoga Springs 31786 32 226 28 258 8.12 1.01 7.11 0.88
6 Kaysville 32404 24 246 29 270 8.33 0.74 7.59 0.89
7 Spanish Fork 40095 12 352 40 364 9.08 0.30 8.78 1.00
8 Syracuse 30301 23 235 26 258 8.51 0.76 7.76 0.86
9 Pleasant Grove 39641 29 424 37 453 11.43 0.73 10.70 0.93
10 North Ogden 19771 6 232 20 238 12.04 0.30 11.73 1.01
11 Heber 16527 26 228 27 254 15.37 1.57 13.80 1.63
12 Lehi 65125 59 694 59 753 11.56 0.91 10.66 0.91
13 Pleasant View 10663 11 108 9 119 11.16 1.03 10.13 0.84
14 Farmington 25006 15 306 24 321 12.84 0.60 12.24 0.96
15 St. George 86202 196 1388 158 1584 18.38 2.27 16.10 1.83
16 Bountiful 44317 43 642 57 685 15.46 0.97 14.49 1.29
17 Hurricane 17676 22 283 28 305 17.26 1.24 16.01 1.58
18 Roy 38834 53 514 44 567 14.60 1.36 13.24 1.13
19 North Park 15713 6 169 10 175 11.14 0.38 10.76 0.64
20 Logan 51508 70 852 83 922 17.90 1.36 16.54 1.61
21 Bluffdale 14648 13 177 12 190 12.97 0.89 12.08 0.82
22 Clearfield 31558 59 462 40 521 16.51 1.87 14.64 1.27
23 Payson 20079 10 318 23 328 16.34 0.50 15.84 1.15
24 Clinton 22179 13 301 19 314 14.16 0.59 13.57 0.86
25 Brigham City 19362 28 362 28 390 20.14 1.45 18.70 1.45
26 American Fork/Cedar Hills 40366 22 702 46 724 17.94 0.55 17.39 1.14
27 Washington 27705 35 477 33 512 18.48 1.26 17.22 1.19
28 Grantsville 11326 29 192 15 221 19.51 2.56 16.95 1.32
29 South Ogden 17174 25 329 25 354 20.61 1.46 19.16 1.46
30 Orem 99221 69 1827 119 1896 19.11 0.70 18.41 1.20
31 North Salt Lake 21190 27 405 28 432 20.39 1.27 19.11 1.32
32 Layton 78052 134 1561 110 1695 21.72 1.72 20.00 1.41
33 Provo 117986 207 2090 127 2297 19.47 1.75 17.71 1.08
34 Vernal 10484 32 261 23 293 27.95 3.05 24.90 2.19
35 Springville 33824 23 627 35 650 19.22 0.68 18.54 1.03
36 Cottonwood Heights 34054 43 787 49 830 24.37 1.26 23.11 1.44
37 Draper 48518 84 976 56 1060 21.85 1.73 20.12 1.15
38 Cedar City 32242 70 751 45 821 25.46 2.17 23.29 1.40
39 Centerville 18013 23 380 19 403 22.37 1.28 21.10 1.05
40 South Jordan 74321 77 1453 65 1530 20.59 1.04 19.55 0.87
41 Sandy 97057 159 2613 126 2772 28.56 1.64 26.92 1.30
42 West Jordan 115392 298 3036 146 3334 28.89 2.58 26.31 1.27
43 Ogden 87616 417 3218 174 3635 41.49 4.76 36.73 1.99
44 West Valley 137132 945 4915 250 5860 42.73 6.89 35.84 1.82
45 Tooele 35065 104 1143 41 1247 35.56 2.97 32.60 1.17
46 Salt Lake City 202633 1480 12516 583 13996 69.07 7.30 61.77 2.88
47 South Salt Lake 25160 242 1796 68 2038 81.00 9.62 71.38 2.70
48 Murray 49675 216 3027 87 3243 65.28 4.35 60.94 1.75
Methodology
To identify the safest cities, we reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. We eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and cities with populations under 10,000. This left 3,381 cities (out of a total of 9,251).
There are two broad classifications of crimes: violent crimes and non-violent crimes. According to the FBI, “Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses that involve force or threat of force. Property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The object of the theft-type offenses is the taking of money or property, but there is no force or threat of force against the victims. ”
We computed the total number of crimes reported by each city by adding violent crimes and property crimes. We then created a crime rate as the number of crimes per 1,000 population. Then we transformed the total crime rate variable so that the skewness was reduced and normalized.
Data from 2,831 law enforcement agencies was then collected to determine police adequacy (TotalCrimes / Number of police employees). We consider that the smaller the police adequacy statistic is, the safer the city is. This variable was also transformed and normalized.
Finally, the two variables were combined to create a safety score for each city.
